In this Holy War called Love
by Xi Fang
Summary: What really happened? Under what circumstanses did John give Reese the picture? How did they stumble on the time displacement equipment? How did Reese fall in love with Sarah?
1. Chapter 1

_Hey! This is Xi Fang here to give you the prequel to the Terminator! Mind you, this is the prequel for the first movie NOT T2! But if you like my format and my story, maybe I can be pursuaded to write one for T2._

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_We're finally home_ she thought while following the men in front of her.

She knew where they were going and she knew that she would finally get some relief from the machines. She and her troops had been on a three-week excursion to try to shut down the machines' mainframe. They had lost many brave soldiers but they kept their chins and guns up and brought down the Northeastern CPU that was controlling most of the machines in the area of the resistance headquarters.

Hearing the sounds of the barking dogs and the sighs from those behind her, she smiled and waited to see the one who kept her going.

"Reese!" she shouted out and ran into his arms. Smirking at her, he caught her and swung her around, her golden hair shone in the firelight even though it was as dirty and grubby as her uniform. "So" he teased, "how did it go?"

Smacking him in the shoulder, she came up beside him and whispered in his ear.

"We did it?" he asked, she nodded.

"We did it!" he picked her up and swung her around again, laughing and grinning widely as he did so.

John, the leader of the human resistance, was watching them closely. His thoughts wandered back to the tapes that his mother had left him and what they had told him.

His mother had only mentioned his father a few times and that he was one of his soldiers. _No matter what happens, I must send him at all costs._

He grew anxious while wondering which one of them would volunteer to go, the end was near for the machines and he knew that they would make the one last attempt on his life. For his daughter's sake, he wished this war to be over.

The human resistance had been spreading out underground and now had enough space to have quarters for the defense force and a sick bay.

The soldiers had been paired in threes, usually two females and a male or two males and a female. Reese shared his compartment with two women both of whom were very annoying.

"Lay off!"

"No! That's my pillow!"

"No its not!"  
"Yes it is!"

"You…you" she was at a loss for words, "You MACHINE!"

The other woman stopped shouting and sat down next to Reese, the rest of the night was quiet.

Over the next few days, more troops came back with good news, the human resistance had now taken out more than half of their CPU and the Hunter-Killers were the only things left running besides the terminators.

The terminators were getting harder and harder to spot although the last one that had been sent to destroy the human resistance had rubber skin, he still took out a third of the troops.

_He_ Reese thought, _did they really identify as male?_ _Sure they looked like any guy would if he trained hard enough, but why male? Why not female? _

His mind was muddled with questions, _why do the dogs not like terminators? It's a good thing they don't but there has to be a reason. _

The two loud-mouthed women came back into the living quarters and his mind was blank. _What was I thinking about?_ He tried to remember. He couldn't.

Leaving the bickering women in peace, he got up and walked out. _It's night_ he thought while looking at the sleeping children to his right.

He needed to organize and not let his thoughts get the best of him. No one was awake by the time he had reached the main hall. Sweeping the hair off his face, he bent down to tie up his shoe.

"What's your name soldier?" a mumble from behind him caused him to rise and turn.

It was John Connor, the legendary man who he had always idolized, sitting against the wall in the corner. He was so strong and he always had this look in his eyes as if he were ready for anything.

He stuttered out some words that sounded like his name and was gestured to sit beside the legend.

"Why are you up so late, Reese?" he asked, his hands were clenched together and his eyes focused on the floor rather than the young man.

"I couldn't sleep…" he answered, Reese couldn't believe that he was talking to the man that made it all happen.

Trying to keep his cool, Reese asked him why he was up so late.

John mumbled something incoherently and squeezed his hands together. "I don't mean to offend you, but could you repeat that?"

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_REVIEW!_

_Tell me how you like it so far, I am working on the ending but I promise that it will not be any longer than four chapters and I already have most of the third one written._


	2. Chapter 2

_Hey its me again! If you like Harry Potter, check out my other fanfic: The Gift! YAY!_

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"My daughter. I was thinking about her and how she shows no restraints with her heart."

John brushed a lock of hair from his face as Reese sighed.

"That is a very rare quality these days" Reese admitted.

John glanced at Reese and he felt at peace for some strange reason, he couldn't put his finger on it.

"Also, my mother." He said, "I can't seem to stop thinking about what she said to me right before she died." John smiled while he spoke and continued, "The future is not set, John. Never forget that. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves"

Reese was in awe of those words and with that he decided to memorize them: _No fate but what we make for ourselves._

"I wish I knew my mother" Reese murmured, "A pack of H.Ks got her just after I was born."

With Reese longing for some relief from his mourning, John handed him a picture. "Here" shoved it into his hands. It was starting to yellow around the edges and there were many creases through it.

"Who is this?" Reese asked while being mesmerized by the young woman's eyes. "That was _the_ top ranking officer, Commander Sarah Connor."

Reese absorbed the photograph into his memory, sketching her every feature and slowly realizing that he had been looking at it too long. He was just about to hand it back when John laughed and told him to keep it.

Reese watched John slowly get up and dust off his uniform, "You get some sleep now. We don't need soldiers who fall asleep on the field."

Reese grinned and said goodnight to him. He spent the rest of the night in that exact spot, falling in love with the maiden in the photograph.

"Reese?" the young woman with the golden blonde hair almost tripped over herself when she saw him sitting against the wall. His groggy gaze recognized her as Private Connor as he held the picture even closer to his heart.

"Reese, what are you doing down there?" she walked over and clasped his hand with hers, pulling him up towards her, she smiled.

"What's that you have there?" she asked while eyeing the photograph, "that must be very old, it's all crinkled!" she pointed out and winked at him.

Though he didn't see her affectionate gesture, he smiled and nodded. Slowly walking away in a daze, she called out to him, "Reese! I have to brief you on our mission for tomorrow!"

Giving up on trying to stop him with her voice, she whispered "well maybe later then."

John sighed when he watched his daughter skulk away after trying to get Reese's attention.

_He's very distant all of a sudden._ John had an unnatural talent for pointing out the obvious or so his daughter told him. _I'll have to keep an eye on him_.

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_REVIEW!_

_sings Reviews make the world go round, the world go round, the world go round. Reviews make the world go round...stops YOU WERE LISTENING TO ME! blushes I have a horrible singing voice!_

**Tune in next chapter to see what happens!**


	3. Chapter 3

AN: I reposted this chapter because I decided that what Reese said to himself about the people that they find didnt make any sense. Have fun... :dances:

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While the sun dragged across the sky, Reese slept with the picture in his hands. He couldn't let go of it, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't. 

"Reese?" The young and beautiful Private Connor called into his room, the two other women were out and he was lying by himself.

"Reese, I have to brief you on our mission" she started but noticed that he wasn't acknowledging her so she gentle strode across the room and sat down beside him. After a few minutes, he opened his eyes and sat up. He stashed the photograph in his inside pocket and bid her good morning.

"It's well past morning, Reese." She stated and watched him grow restless.

"You said something about a briefing?" he asked remembering what she had shouted at him earlier, "Oh, yes. Umm" her mind wandered until it came across the information that she needed. "I remember now. We are going to be sent out tomorrow to take care of the rest of the H.Ks and other rogue machines."

"When are we leaving?"

"Right after sunset"

"Is that wise?" he asked

"Probably not"

"Sounds good!"

Reese laughed causing Connor to smile; she liked the way that he made her feel, if only she could tell him how she felt. _I guess it'll have to wait until we get back _She thought.

Reese asked another question after her moment of silence, "Is that all we're doing? I mean we can spot the terminators a mile away and the HK's are being taken care of by the 77th squad."

Connor knew that he was right and added, "I know that it seems like we have it all taken care of, but we can't let our guard down!" Nodding, Reese agreed and pulled her into a hug.

"Thanks for always proving me wrong!"

"Anytime."

By sunset the following day, two sets of troops were set to head off into the night.

"Now listen all of you!" John Connor called out, "Take out all of those machines that you can manage without getting yourselves killed! We want to have all of you around when we celebrate our victory over those metal bastards!"

All the troops cried out in unison and they were ushered out the access way by the mothers, the children and the wounded.

The soldiers fought hard and long against the remaining machines. They had few casualties but stumbled upon a few rogue survivors. Reese was trying to come across an answer to how they had survived but nothing came. There were four of them and they said that they had been shielded by the machines from a fallen building but were starving.

_I don't believe this shit._ Reese thought to himself, _they look normal but this feeling that I have, it's like they're not human_.

Shaking the thoughts out of his head, he and his troops escorted them back to the base. Reese's thoughts ended with a small note: _We have to save as many as possible._

Hearing the low whimper of the dogs that awaited them on the other side of the door just up ahead, Reese thought of the picture that resided in his inside pocket.

_Sarah Connor…I know two of you…my love, the daughter of our leader and the beauty in the picture_.

Reaching the door, he mumbled out his name and command code while he said hello to the dogs as he was let inside. He instantly walked along the pathway to his left, which led towards his living quarters.

As he walked along the corridor, he saw how pitiful they all looked. There were children catching rats as food and the elderly were taking their last breaths. _These people should be getting the food, not the soldiers._ He thought bitterly but then realized that these people wouldn't even have a chance if there were no soldiers to fight. Sitting down against the wall, he watched the other troops start to come through the access way.

Reese slowly reached into his front pocket and extracted the photograph. _I missed you, Sarah. It seems that you are the only one of the two Sarah Connors whom I can get close to without hurting other people _he thought. _Her eyes, they seem distant. I wonder what she's thinking about. _He traced over her face with his fingers, _Sarah_ he addressed her as though he were really talking to her, _you seem sad, who is it that has caused you the sadness that I see in your eyes?_

Almost in an instant, the dogs were barking loudly and the sound of laser fire was echoing along the corridors. With the people around him scrambling to hide, he shoved the picture of his beloved Sarah in between his teeth and took off to confront the threat.

_A Terminator. I knew it! _He cursed himself for being so stupid. _The machines must have planted a terminator among those people. It was so simple!_ Reese cursed himself over and over again while attacking the cyborg.

The rest of the troops were shooting at the terminator from the access way while its gunfire had caused many human casualties. John was waiting around the corner for the right time to take his shot; Reese saw this and kept the attention of the machine on him. A one-on-one battle with a terminator was no playtime and Reese was starting to give up hope on John.

The terminator had just exploded a main electrical circuit hatchway and there were glowing embers everywhere.

The blast had caused Reese to fall to the ground while the red-hot pieces around him quickly blazed into flames. Reese hit the ground hard and the photograph fell from his mouth and into the fire to his right. _Shit!_

He looked ahead of him and saw the red piercing eyes that were tracking him.

He passed out a few seconds later.

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AN: and it still ends with him passing out... WUSSY! (I dont really mean that...Reese is my favourite character!) REVIEW! 


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Hey there! eats ice cream thanks for the reviews! As you probably guessed by now, this will be longer than 4 chappies. It will probably be 6 or something like that. Meh!

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"How long has he been out?"

A solo voice started the melody, a bass instrument answered, "A few days. He's lucky that that terminator didn't get him."

A high-pitched flute fluttered among the bass and the voice, "Get out! He has to be rested before he hears the news."

_The nurse!_ He thought while keeping his eyes closed, Reese was only half-awake but could hear their conversation as one would hear a symphony.

_Who else? John is here too and…_ his mind went blank, he did not know who the bass was.

The flute screeched at the voice and the bass to get out of the room and as she closed the door, she sighed, "I do hope that she's going to live."

A few hours later, Reese decided to open his eyes to see the commotion in the hall. _She must have opened the doors_ he silently noted. Getting up from the cot he slowly crept to the doorway and looked out. There was a crowd gathering around the center of the gathering hall. Reese ambled out to see what the disturbance was all about.

Pushing his way to the middle of the crowd, what he saw shocked him beyond reason.

"Co-Colin?" he muttered, his eyes wide open.

He started naming off members of his team.

"Raime, DJ, Karen, Peter, Raychel, Sa-…" he stuttered. He didn't want to say her name.

"Sarah?"

He had never cried in his life but now there were tears streaming down his face so fast that he didn't even see John come up from his dead daughter's body and comfort him.

_They…they're all dead!_

It hit him even worse when he told himself this.

_It's all my fault! If I hadn't brought in those people…_ he couldn't finish his thought.

John was telling him to calm down and tried to get him to sit down but he didn't budge. The crowd around them slowly divided as Reese broke down. Now a weeping mass on the ground, he sobbed.

After a few minutes, he whispered, "I…I loved her." John stared at him; Reese's voice was thunderous as he yelled through the tears, "I loved her, god dammit!" His fists were now pounding the ground while he sat on his knees crying.

Everyone around him retreated from respect to the dead and left John to comfort Reese.

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AN: Hello again. I know that this chapter is short but I decided to post it for the readers (even though it's not finished) because I am going away for five weeks to Montreal! Well actuallyIm going toLachine. :shrug: But I will have my laptop with me to writebut the bad thing it that I won't have internet access. It would be a real treat if you shared this story with others and surprised me with lots of reviews when I come back. :hint hint, nudge nudge: 


	5. Chapter 5

An: Hello again! My vacation was great and I can now speak French. I am truly sorry for making you wait but things were kinda hectic when I came back. My dad moved out and I'm living with him, he lost my flash/removable drives so I have to type out all of my stories onto my current computer to get these chapters to you. Gah!

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Over the next few weeks, the machines were getting desperate. Although an act of desperation is only a human conflict, the machines were getting as close to it as possible.

John had finally had the last mainframe computer knocked out and only the Austrian SPU and their terminators were working.

Austria's computers initialized an emergency disconnection from the central network and were conveying their terminators in an attempt to destroy the human resistance, or so the last hope for mankind thought.

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Head Commander Connor strode into the control centre looking for an updated report on the Austrian attack. His dim eyes were suddenly forced away at the sight of a familiar face.

"Captain Reese"

John had promoted him up to a higher station out of respect for his loss. Reese was still extremely touchy about what had happened, he had only just accepted a position in the control centre.

He was now away from what was happening outside and was finally back among those who cared for him.

"Hmm?" he mumbled while spinning around in his chair.

"Hi" John was debating whether to call the captain by his real name out of friendship or not and decided against it. Reese was still very unstable as it was and didn't need to be shaken up by him. "How are you feeling today?"

"Not Bad" Reese sighed.

"But not good…" John said peering into Reese's soul through his dulled eyes.

Reese shrugged and sat silently until a question bothered him: _Why is he so unaffected by losing her?_

Reese asked, "Are you feeling okay?"

John looked up abruptly, Reese elaborated on his question.

"About losing her, I mean."

John sat silently with his head bowed.

Both Reese and John silently agreed to leave their conversation at that and to continue with their work.

Reese went back to watching the blank radar screen as John retreated to his living quarters with tears in his eyes.

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_Why must I keep going on like this?_

John scolded himself as he wiped away his tears with the back of his hand.

_I know I should have never let her enter the Attack force!_

He threw himself into his sitting chair and continued to shed his tears.

She's not coming back… 

These words cut through his soul like a razorblade across skin, spilling the contents from within.

Once again, he dried his tears and told himself that Sarah would not have wanted to see him like this.

He stood up with his head held high and walked out, away from himself and away from _her_.

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"JOHN!"

Reese yelled at the top of his lungs, everyone in the control centre was running to the different monitors to see if they were all reading the same thing.

The North American mainframe and CPU were up and running!

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An: Hello again, I hoped that you liked this chapter. If you are wondering why I chose the Austrian base to still be operational is because Arnold Schwarzenegger is Austrian. (Not German like most people think!) It is really the only reason I have that can explain his accent. Well it's better than saying that he has a toothache! 


	6. Chapter 6

AN: Hi! Xi Fang here updating the story that was only supposed to take four chapters! It is much more complicated than that and deserves a good chunk of size1 width100 noshade>"Get the Sky Fighters on watch and ready the Defense Force, we may be in for a bit of trouble."

The Head Commander shouted orders as naturally as one would breathe in and out. They had to be ready; at all costs, they _must_ be ready.

"Captain Reese!" he addressed the man before him, "It is mandatory that you are briefed with all others in chief command."

"Yes Sir" he saluted his Head Commander and marched off to the meeting room knowing that he would get his revenge for the death of his love.

Reese tried to remember her beautiful smile but could only come up with the sad eyes of her grandmother.

_That damned photograph was the only thing I had that was remotely related to her! _

As he stepped silently into the small office his thoughts were still on the photograph.

_An Omen? _

Reese didn't believe in bullshit such as magic and other such things but this was so ironic.

The photograph perished just as she did.

_Maybe we weren't meant to be together…_

All throughout the briefing, Reese couldn't keep his thoughts off of the fact that she was all he had left to fight for.

She was what he fought for.

It was all for her.

He didn't know which one it was for, maybe both…

All he knew for sure that he fought for a woman he loved named Sarah.

John noticed Reese's hazy gaze while the officers were completing their strategy. They had already sent out scouts to confirm restoration of the machine's control in North America.

_The time must be soon, the machines are doing everything in their power to try and knock me out, _John grimaced silently.

A little voice in the back of his head whispered.

_Your father, John. You must send him. _

Telling himself that he knew that he must didn't help, the little voice turned into that of his mother's.

_John._

_A message, John. _

_Don't you want to tell me something when you send him?_

_When you send your father, John._

He wasn't sure if he could do this without knowing whom his father was. He quickly composed a little note in his head and decided to add to it when he found out who is was.

After the meeting, everything was ready to go.

"Head Commander Connor!" A faceless private came running up his and started babbling incoherently.

"Slow down boy!" John grabbed the soldier's shoulders and held him still until he spoke properly.

"Th-the mainframe, the C-CPU isn't running."

"What do you mean it's not running?"

"The scouts, they ca-called in and said that everything was still in r-ruins."

"My God. Do they have double conformation on this?"

"Y-yes Sir!"

"The what are those tricky machines up to this time?" John walked off leaving the stammering man to sit down and calm himself.

John sprinted to the control center and was attacked with worried questions and problems.

"Sir, our detectors are reading that everything is still destroyed. Not even three minutes ago it was the exact opposite!"

"Sir, the radar reads nothing"

"Sir, the Sky Fighters are awaiting their commands, what shall I tell them?"

"The D.F. (Defense Force) has moved out, Sir. They are asking for the strategy briefing."

John was about to crumble underneath all of the nervous tension, there were about fifty questions a second and he couldn't understand the jumble of words.

"ENOUGH!"

Once everyone was silent he said, "Whoever has a summary of everything that is going on, please step forward."

Reese stepped forward. "Captain Reese? I thought you were out with your troops."

He shook his head and explained, "We were about to leave when a bumbling soldier was telling everyone that the machines in North America were still destroyed. I decided to delay my team to see if what he was saying was true."

"Is it?"

"I'm still not sure."

John sighed and started his long chain of commands. He had everyone in motion until it was finally confirmed that the North American CPU was still inoperative. Everyone stopped once more and watched John relay the information to all others in command. Everyone was brought back in with great caution while they started to plan once again, but this time it was to attack Austria itself.

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AN: Thank you to all those who have reviewed and left their character info! The turnouts have been amazing! I will be waiting another two weeks...until about March 5th 2006! So get those characters in! (Please, only one character per user) :D


	7. Chapter 7

**_AN: There is some swearing in this, well…more than the last ones. I don't count bastard as a swear word but there is the word fck in this chapter. This is an official warning!_**

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Head Commander Connor paced the room with great effort; it was the only thing preventing a nervous breakdown.

"Sir" The man who had just burst through the briefing room door addressed John with urgency in his voice. John sighed and told him to sit without listening to his urgent news. Reese saw this as odd for John was the type of person to listen, no matter how busy he was.

After a few seconds of silence, John started to mumble to himself, trying to figure out a way inside. He mentally fought with himself often and those who were in the top ranks knew that he was strategizing when he started to mumble.

The man who had interrupted Head Commander Connor's therapeutical pacing was now fidgeting with his hands. His dark eyes and dark features roamed the other faces in the room. Reese was looking for a reason not to look at the man only finding his gaze uncertainly locked on target.

The fidgeting man quickly dropped his eyes when he realized that the man who was staring at him was _the_ Commander Reese. He had been there when the young man snapped and was surprised to see him sitting there ready for battle.

While John was still trying to win the debate within his head, the dark fidgeting man raised his eyes back up and introduced himself to Reese.

"Alan Black, nice to meet you." He threw his hand across the table and Reese shook it.

"Uhhh—Kyle Reese." He stated uncertainly.

Alan smiled sharply while he gave a head count in the room. _1 – 2 – 3,4,5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – and Head Commander Connor makes 9. _He didn't know the names of those sitting in the room but he was sure that proper introductions would come later.

John cleared his throat and the meeting began, he started off by introducing his strategy.

"Listen up ladies!" he shouted across the room and ended the small conversations at the back of the room.

"As the machines seem to want to fuck with us, we will fuck with them! _But_" he emphasized this word and continued, "we have to be careful about it." His voice dropped in volume but not in effectiveness.

He smiled and brought out detailed blueprints of the Austrian base. Pointing to a spot on the paper, he told them that this was going to be their entrance and exit.

"Only enough for one at a time so you will have to make sure that you're discreet," he added.

"Sir" Reese spoke up and asked, "How the hell are we getting there?" Both teams laughed, as did John. He did not see this question as rude since Reese was right to be worried about the mode of transportation.

"Well," and he mumbled the rest of his sentence.

"What?" Alan piped up with a confused look on his face, "Sir, could you please speak up?"

"Roland who is the head electrician, and Raychel, the head mechanical technician, have found something rather exciting in the ruins of the North American base."A black haired Native looking woman sitting at the back of the room verbalized in John's place. She harshly pronounced every syllable of the word 'exciting.'

John looked uneasy and elaborated, "Yes, our search teams have come across sophisticated hard and software which will take your" he nodded to Reese, "and your" he nodded to Black, "teams across to where you need to go"

"Risky though isn't it, Sir." Reese sighed and asked, "Have you tried it yet?"

John nodded and told them that it works perfectly.

In the following minutes he described the main procedures and a walkthrough of the Austrian base.

After complete agreement, the teams were ushered to the barracks to get acquainted while they waited for their equipment to be rounded up.

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AN: The swearing wasn't all that bad now was it? Roland and Raychel were inspired by a two of my friends. Thank you, everyone! I had an amazing turnout! I read and cherish all of my reviews!

Recent Note: I am getting back into writing. It took me almost three years, and only recently, an operation that has put me out of commission for a little while, to be able to write this fic again.

To all those who have posted their characters: They are being written about! Of course, I am taking a little creative license with them, but they're pretty much the same. :) Sorry for the wait!


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